Linguistic Turn
Saussure held that definitions of concepts cannot exist independently from a linguistic system defined by difference, or, to put it differently, that a concept of something cannot exist without being named. Thus differences between meanings structure our perception; there is no real chair except insofar as we are manipulating symbolic systems. We w
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There's a sense in which I disagree with the sense in which perception is characterized as manipulating symbolic systems. Because we’re perceptually constrained and share statistical relations among our sensory apparatus, we are all getting at something that can’t be seen as _purely_ symbolic.
It also strikes me that this kind of definition is coherent with an ecological view, wherein the chair is not a chair if it doesn't afford sitting (e.g., it is piled high with books).